Department of Pattern Recognition

(eng): A continuous skew-symmetric bilinear (SSB) representation of preferences has recently been proposed in a topological vector space, assuming a weaker notion of convexity of preferences than in the classical (algebraic) case. Equipping a linear vector space with the so-called inductive linear topology, we derive the algebraic SSB representation on such topological basis, thus weakening the convexity assumption. Such a unifying approach to SSB representation leads, moreover, to a stronger existence result for a maximal element and opens a way for a non-probabilistic interpretation of the algebraic theory. Note finally that our method of using powerful topological techniques to derive purely algebraic result may be of general interest.